How an otherwise healthy Wall Street bank totally blew its best quarter in years

The UK's Barclays Bank reported its first quarter earnings this
morning, and the numbers should've been fantastic. But
they weren't.

Pre-tax profit rose to $2.8 billion from $2.6 billion a year
before, partly due to the restructuring and cost
cutting plan CEO Anthony Jenkins instituted in the investment
bank after the financial crisis. The plan is working, and these
numbers should've been the greatest the bank has seen in
years.

But, again, they weren't. Barclays blew it because it had
to take a $1.2 billion legal charge from regulators for
manipulating foreign exchange rates. That charge is about $461
million more than analysts expected.

What this is telling us is that the "cost of doing
business" is costing too much, even for Wall Street.